More origins of band names

A friend of mine, Adam, read my previous blog on band names, and suggested two other bands from the 60's who had names with suggestive origins. Both names perhaps relate to a certain "special sauce" that guys make when they are doing special things with the special woman in their life. I decided to investigate.

10cc
There is some controversy regarding the origin of the band name 10cc. As one story goes, the name came to Jonathon King in a dream. King ran UK Records and had signed the band. King dreamed of seeing a marquee at a theater that said "10cc The Best Band in the World". Snopes states that both King and Eric Stewart (of the band) agree with this story. No one commented as to whether King's dream was dry or wet, by the way.

Another band member, the aptly named Lol Creme, has a different story. "We were racking our brains for a suitable name, one that really captured our style and image, and Jonathan King, who'd signed us to his U.K. label, said, '10cc - because it's the average amount of semen ejaculated by a healthy male!' Well, naturally, we thought it was perfect." 

Ten cubic centimeters is perhaps a bit optimistic. It's kind of on the upper end. One could easily make the case that they were striving to be a little better than your average band?

Believe what you will.

Lovin' Spoonful
The name brings up the question: a lovin' spoonful of what? Does the band name also have sexual connotations? Or maybe the name has to do with cocaine?

Wikipedia begs to differ with both stories. Mississippi John Hurt wrote a song called "Coffee Blues". The lyrics inspired the name for the Lovin' Spoonful: 

"Wanted her to cook me some good Maxwell's House.
You understand, if I can get me just a spoonful of Maxwell's House,
do me much good as two or three cups this other coffee...
I wanna see my baby 'bout a lovin' spoonful, my lovin' spoonful"

So. The lovin' spoonful that the name Lovin' Spoonful refers to is coffee. Go figger.

Maybe Mississippi John Hurt was really talking about special sauce? I think it's a pretty fair guess that he had some innuendo going on. But, I also think it is clear that the singer of the song (a male) is hoping to receive some lovin' spoonful.   

Cream
The name of 10cc band member (Lol Creme) reminded me of another band. Where did Clapton's band Cream get their name? Was that another naughty name?

The name "Cream" did not arise from a certain euphemism about a male becoming excited. Instead, the name came from the recognition that the band members (Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce) were the cream of the crop.

Cream, incidentally, recorded the song "Spoonful". The song is summarized by the line "just a little spoonful or your love would satisfy my soul".

Pearl Jam
I quote from a website from someone who claims to know the salacious origin of the name of the band Pearl Jam:

"It means semen. Be warned that there are plenty of dumb stories, some even put forward by the band..."

This claim is unsubstantiated. The author produced no references to back up his claim. There are, however some interesting things about the name. Originally, band member Eddie Vedder said that the group got its name from his native American great-grandmother, Pearl, who made a jam with peyote in it. Later, he admitted that this was all garbage. The story that came out later was much less exciting. I quote Wikipedia:

Ament and McCready explained that Ament came up with "pearl", and that the band later settled on "Pearl Jam" after attending a concert by Neil Young, in which he extended his songs as improvisations of 15–20 minutes in length, a practice known as jamming.


So apparently none of these band names were inspired by special sauce. Still, they make for a good story.

Read the next blog post on origins of band names